ECE 7500    Introduction to VLSI Design

ENGI 9868    ASIC Design

 

                                                            Spring 2024

 

Instructor: Dr. Lihong Zhang, Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science, Memorial University of Newfoundland, Email: lzhang@mun.ca

  

Course Schedule:

Lectures: Three lectures per week. Tuesdays and Thursdays 12:00-12:50, Fridays 13:00-13:50, all in EN-1004

Office Hours:  Mondays and Tuesdays 14:00-15:00

Assignment Due Dates: May 21 (A1), May 28 (A2), June 6 (A4), June 14 (A5)

Labs: 9 lab sessions plus final report. The software used for the labs includes CAD tools from Cadence, Synopsys, Mentor Graphics (Siemens EDA now), etc.

Midterm Test: June 25

Project Report: Aug. 2

 

Evaluation Scheme:
For undergraduate students, the following marking scheme is used:

Assignments:                 10 %   

Labs:                            15 %   

Midterm exam:             20 % (Tentatively June 25, Tuesday 12:00-12:50)

Final exam:                   55 %

 

For graduate students, the following marking scheme is used:

Assignments:                 10 %   

Labs:                            15 %   

Midterm exam:             20 % (Tentatively June 25, Tuesday 12:00-12:50)

Final exam:                   40 %

Project:                        15%

 

Website: The formal D2L based course website is available at http://online.mun.ca

 

Course Outline: http://www.engr.mun.ca/~lihong/teaching/EN8863_9868/ece7500courseOutline.pdf http://www.engr.mun.ca/~lihong/teaching/EN8863_9868/engi9868courseOutline.pdf

 

Course Schedule: http://www.engr.mun.ca/~lihong/teaching/EN8863_9868/7500courseScheduleWeb.html

 

Prerequisite and Contents:
As a prerequisite, students are expected to have basic knowledge on VHDL, digital logic, digital system design, and microprocessors.

The topics will include, but not be limited to:
1. Introduction to CMOS processing technology and CMOS digital circuit and logic design
2. Introduction to ASICs and ASIC design methodology
3. Basic concepts about Synopsys and ASIC technology library
4. Partitioning for logic synthesis and VHDL coding
5. Constraining designs, synthesizing, simulation and optimization
6. Design for testability
7. Layout & post-layout optimization and SDF generation
8. Static timing analysis
9. Analog and mixed-signal integrated circuits
 

Textbook:  

There is no official textbook for this course. Most of the material for lectures and labs is covered by the following books:
1. Michael J. S. Smith, Application-Specific Integrated Circuits, Pearson,  2011.
2. Himanshu Bhatnagar, Advanced ASIC Chip Synthesis: Using Synopsys Design Compiler, Physical Compiler and Primetime, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Boston, 2002.
3. Jan Rabaey, Anantha Chandrakasan, and Borivoje Nikolic, Digital Integrated Circuits, Prentice Hall, New York, 2014.
4. Behzad Razavi, Design of Analog CMOS Integrated Circuits, McGraw Hill, New York, 2016.
5. Neil Weste and David Harris, CMOS VLSI Design, A Circuits and Systems Perspective, Addison Wesley, Boston, 2010.

6. R. Jacob Baker, CMOS: Circuit Design, Layout, and Simulation, Wiley-IEEE Press, 4th Edition, 2019.